Guardio raises $40M at $1.1B valuation to expand AI consumer security

Wiz co-founder and Chief Executive Assaf Rappaport joined the round along with existing investors ION Crossover Partners, Union Tech Ventures, Vintage Investment Partners, Cerca Partners and Emerge Ventures. Including this round, Guardio has raised $167 million to date, following an $80 million Series B led by ION in November.

Guardio’s core product is a detection engine that proactively flags or blocks risky links, fake login pages, dangerous downloads and scam messages before users interact with them. Its browser extension and mobile protection check websites and downloads in real time and can warn about fake sites, malware, malicious extensions, suspicious delivery pages and unusual browser behavior. The products also monitor whether email addresses or phone numbers associated with the user have appeared in data breaches.

The company says AI has made it easier for scammers to craft personalized messages and websites that appear legitimate, enabling attacks that trick people into giving away passwords, account details or running malicious files. Guardio positions its software as protection for individuals, families and businesses, rather than as a full replacement for established endpoint security.

“Scammers stopped hacking computers years ago – they hack people, and with AI, it’s cheap and easy. Cybercrime is essentially democratized,” Guardio Chief Executive and co-founder Amos Peled said. “Nobody is losing their savings to a virus. People are losing savings to a scam that AI wrote, voiced and dialed — while their antivirus reports that their laptop is perfectly clean.”

According to FBI data cited in SiliconANGLE’s report, the bureau received an average of roughly 3,000 cybercrime complaints per day last year, about 22,000 of them confirmed as AI-related. U.S. losses to cybercrime reached a record $20.9 billion during the same period.